Photoshop Illustration Effect: Transforming a Photo

Photoshop can help you make any photo look like an illustration. The Photoshop illustration
process is definitely much simpler than drawing the illustration
yourself. In a matter of minutes, you can use an existing image and
some quick manipulations to fool the viewer. However, understand that
this is not simulating a pencil or marker illustration, but a graphic
illustration. So, the results will look minimally chromatic with crisp
edges.

Step 1: Consider Your Photo

No matter what, this effect is going to make the colors in your
photo more vibrant. Thankfully, this is in line with our objective to
simulate an illustration. It would be difficult for someone creating an
illustration to blend many different color tones, or muddle the
contrast. So even though the effect will get you there, you do not want
to give away the trick by choosing a photo that would never be
illustrated. For example, a gloomy landscape would not read well as a
graphic illustration. Find something with more contrast potential, and
you will enjoy the results.

Step 2: Blur Your Photo

Open the photo you have chosen in Photoshop. Luckily, you will not
need to create tons of layers and meld them in several different ways.
This can be done merely with your background layer. In order to reduce
the number of shades that make up your photo, we are going to blur it
quite a bit. "Smart Blur" works well because it will blur similar
pixels in proximity of each other without losing sharp edges between
extremely dis-similar colors. To access this filter, go to the "Filter"
drop-down, choose "Blur", and select "Smart Blur". The window that
pops up provides you with a preview to observe what you are doing.
Slide both the "Radius" and "Threshold" bars all the way to 100. If you
are looking at a person, then all the blemishes will suddenly disappear
into a highly diffuse skin tone. Keep the "Quality" high and set the
"Mode" to normal. Hit OK.

Step 3: Sharpen the Edges

The previous step made the whole image very soft. This is important
as an intermediate step. It may seem contradictory, but now we are
going to sharpen the whole thing. However, since we have already
softened it, the sharpening will come out even cleaner. Go to "Filter",
select "Sharpen", and choose "Unsharp Mask". What this will do is
remove any "unsharp" pixels from your image. Play with the "Amount"
slider to find something that works for you. Note that if you go higher
than 100%, you start to lose way too much, so keep an eye on that
preview screen. The "Radius" can be pretty high; try something around
80. Leave the Threshold at 0. When you finish, you should have a pretty
well simulated illustration.

As with many effects, the source material needs to come through the
process with the final product in mind. Though this is simple, strong
results can only be reached with due consideration.